House Speaker John Boehner, on NBC's "Meet the Press," conceded he simply couldn't predict the impact. "I don't know whether it's going to hurt the economy or not," Boehner said. "I don't think anyone quite understands how the sequester is really going to work."
While the cuts represent just more than 2 percent of the federal budget, they only target a relatively narrow portion of that budget. When that is taken into account, the administration says the cuts really represent 9 percent of the non-defense budget and 13 percent of defense spending.
Some top Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., continue to press for changes to shield the military from drastic cutbacks. The Pentagon for months has warned that the sequester will damage military readiness.
Lawmakers on both sides can still come together on an agreement to target the cuts more carefully. Republicans, though, have insisted throughout that they will not allow for any revenue increases, something Democrats demand -- and it's unclear whether the two sides will bridge that gap, as Congress moves next into negotiations over a budget measure that expires at the end of the month. But the prospect of deactivating the cuts altogether, an option some Democrats called for in the final throes of sequester panic, appears to be fading.
The $85 billion in cuts apply to the remainder of the 2013 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. But without a deal they will continue slashing government spending by about $1 trillion more over a 10-year period.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/04/despite-washington-angst-officials-appear-resigned-to-sequester-cuts/#ixzz2Mts2K7Qt